Star gets it right on tuition tax credits

by David Safier

The Star has a good editorial this morning blasting the recommendations the R-majority committee on tuition tax credits put together. I've complained mightily for weeks (months?) about the Star's lackluster-to-absent coverage of the topic. Let's hope this is the paper's first installment on tuition tax credit and STO abuse, not the final word.

The editorial begins by condemning the idea of adding 50% to the per-person tax credit. Then it discusses problems with the current system, focusing on the "recommendations" that funnel ridiculous amounts of scholarship money toward specific children, resulting in some well-off families sending their children to private schools for free using tax credit dollars.

I'll assume a space problem is the reason the editorial left out any discussion of the misuse of funds by the STOs for personal gain by some directors and their friends. Maybe the Star is planning a separate editorial on the topic?

(Here's an angle. The R-dominated committee skirted around the topic of misuse of funds whenever possible, then made some worthless, watered-down recommendations. When it was brought up in the D-majority task force meetings in public testimony, Rich Crandall all but shouted down the speaker. Why aren't we having a serious investigation of this misuse of funds, especially given our current budget woes?)